Laura and I went to the L.A. Festival of Books today at UCLA...which, I must admit, was strikingly beautiful today. It may have space and hills and tree lined sidewalks and statuesque architecture and cleanliness and happy families with their golden retrievers...but does it double as Yale on the venerable Gilmore Girls? That it does not.
We went to two panels, both were great. The first was titled "Page & Screen" or something like that and featured these writers: Marisa Silver, Glasgow Phillips, Tara Ison and Elinor Lipman and was moderated by John Sacret Young. I have read Marisa Silver and some of Glasgow Phillips in McSweeneys and a recent L.A. Times calendar article on Phillips' recent novel The Royal Nonesuch, but hadn't heard of Ison or Lipman. They all had some interesting things to say.
Some of the writers had directed (Silver and Phillips), some had written screenplays, and some had their novels optioned by film studios. They talked about the craft of writing prose/fiction, screenplays and directing films, and how one can inform the other. They also talked about the interiority of writing prose and the structure-based writing of screenplays and of the importance of finding a secret inner space in your mind and the importance of separating your everyday life and activities from the time in which you need to be quiet and creative. It was interesting to hear from people who are doing the things I want to be doing: writing (short stories, novels and screenplays), directing, and even teaching.
The second panel was titled "Nonfiction: Humor and Attitude" whatever that means. The writers/talented people on this panel were (from left to right in the photo) moderator Meghan Daum, Samantha Dunn, Larry Miller, Neal Pollack and Jill Soloway. I've read stuff by Neal Pollack and Meghan Daum (who writes a column for the L.A. Times in the Op/Ed section, and who moved to Nebraska for a few years) and was a fan of Jill Soloway through her work as a Writer and Co-Executive Producer on Six Feet Under. Luckily, the panel lived up to the title and was quite often funny. Soloway, in particular, was really funny...or perhaps I just related to her the most. She was the only panelist to mention both Courtney Cox's asshole and feminist revolution. We both bought her book and got them signed afterwards. In case you can't read it, her inscription reads, "Dear Lindsay, From the voice of 'Claire.'" From what I've read of it so far, which is minimal, it is really funny.
I love books and book lovers. Here, for example (in the background of this photo) is a father and his son, packing up the many books they bought in a roller suitcase.
This was not the only example of a rolling luggage/portable device used to cart around their many wares and purchases. All for the love of the word.
